Excel Spreadsheet Automation with the QUERY Formula

The CData Excel Add-In for SingleStore provides formulas that can edit, save, and delete SingleStore data. The following three steps show how you can automate the following task: Search SingleStore data for a user-specified value and then organize the results into an Excel spreadsheet.

The syntax of the CDATAQUERY formula is the following: =CDATAQUERY(Query, [Connection], [Parameters], [ResultLocation]);

This formula requires three inputs:

• Query: The declaration of the SingleStore data records you want to retrieve or the modifications to be made, written in standard SQL.

• Connection: Either the connection name, such as SingleStoreConnection1, or a connection string. The connection string consists of the required properties for connecting to SingleStore data, separated by semicolons.

  The following connection properties are required in order to connect to data.

  • Server: The host name or IP of the server hosting the SingleStore database.
  • Port: The port of the server hosting the SingleStore database.
  • Database (Optional): The default database to connect to when connecting to the SingleStore Server. If this is not set, tables from all databases will be returned.

  Connect Using Standard Authentication

  To authenticate using standard authentication, set the following:

  • User: The user which will be used to authenticate with the SingleStore server.
  • Password: The password which will be used to authenticate with the SingleStore server.

  Connect Using Integrated Security

  As an alternative to providing the standard username and password, you can set IntegratedSecurity to True to authenticate trusted users to the server via Windows Authentication.

  Connect Using SSL Authentication

  You can leverage SSL authentication to connect to SingleStore data via a secure session. Configure the following connection properties to connect to data:

  • SSLClientCert: Set this to the name of the certificate store for the client certificate. Used in the case of 2-way SSL, where truststore and keystore are kept on both the client and server machines.
  • SSLClientCertPassword: If a client certificate store is password-protected, set this value to the store's password.
  • SSLClientCertSubject: The subject of the TLS/SSL client certificate. Used to locate the certificate in the store.
  • SSLClientCertType: The certificate type of the client store.
  • SSLServerCert: The certificate to be accepted from the server.

  Connect Using SSH Authentication

  Using SSH, you can securely login to a remote machine. To access SingleStore data via SSH, configure the following connection properties:

  • SSHClientCert: Set this to the name of the certificate store for the client certificate.
  • SSHClientCertPassword: If a client certificate store is password-protected, set this value to the store's password.
  • SSHClientCertSubject: The subject of the TLS/SSL client certificate. Used to locate the certificate in the store.
  • SSHClientCertType: The certificate type of the client store.
  • SSHPassword: The password that you use to authenticate with the SSH server.
  • SSHPort: The port used for SSH operations.
  • SSHServer: The SSH authentication server you are trying to authenticate against.
  • SSHServerFingerPrint: The SSH Server fingerprint used for verification of the host you are connecting to.
  • SSHUser: Set this to the username that you use to authenticate with the SSH server.
• ResultLocation: The cell that the output of results should start from.

Pass Spreadsheet Cells as Inputs to the Query

The procedure below results in a spreadsheet that organizes all the formula inputs in the first column.

1. Define cells for the formula inputs. In addition to the connection inputs, add another input to define a criterion for a filter to be used to search SingleStore data, such as ShipCountry.
2. In another cell, write the formula, referencing the cell values from the user input cells defined above. Single quotes are used to enclose values such as addresses that may contain spaces.
=CDATAQUERY("SELECT * FROM Orders WHERE ShipCountry = '"&B6&"'","User="&B1&";Password="&B2&";Database="&B3&";Server="&B4&";Port="&B5&";Provider=SingleStore",B7)
3. Change the filter to change the data.